1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a combined reading apparatus for identifying a product, and more particularly to a combined reading apparatus which identifies a product by reading a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag or image code attached to the product.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in keeping with their commercialization, RFID tags have been used for various purposes, such as product management, etc.
RFID tags can provide higher recognition rates and can store larger amounts of data than image codes, such as bar codes, QR codes, or the like, which are used for conventional methods of identifying a product, and thus have been replacing image codes.
Although RFID tags have been increasingly used, image codes have been still used due to costs and existing facilities.
Accordingly, to manage products using different identification methods, a problem arises in that both an RFID reader and an image code reader are required because the RFID reader and the image code reader must be selectively used depending on an identification method used by each of the products.
In connection with this, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2010-0023830 discloses a technology which is configured to acquire tag data through the processing of a tag signal received via a communication module disposed inside an RFID reader and configured to communicate with a tag and which is also configured to communicate with an adjacent RFID reader and middleware. However, this technology does not provide a reader capable of reading both an image code and an RFID tag, and thus cannot overcome the above problem.
Accordingly, there is a need for a technology which is capable of overcoming the above problem.
Meanwhile, the above-described related art corresponds to technical information which has been possessed by the present inventor in order to conceive the present invention or which has been acquired in the process of conceiving the present invention, and is not necessarily considered to be a well-known technology that had been known to the public before the filing date of the present invention.